Philobiblon

Ok, so you’re wondering why I went to Peterborough. Well the answer is this, otherwise known as an eBay rush of blood to the head. I’ve been riding a staid and heavy, but nicely stable hybrid (mixture of road and mountain bike) ever since I started cycling in London, but having been taking it out past the 30 mile-day mark recently started to think that it was really making life hard. And if I was ever going to have a hope of making the Dunwich Dynamo’s 120 miles I’d need all the help I could get.
I’ve always thought that my back wouldn’t take drop handlebars, but I came to realise just how much extra work I was having to do to push the torso against the wind. So for £31.05 plus a £20 train fare, I decided to give this a shot.

I’ve only taken it out once so far, for a tootle around the block, and I realised then it is going to take some getting used to, particularly in traffic. It is like switching from riding an old hack to a young thoroughbred.

It is not unstable exactly, just highly responsive to the slightest movement. And I really haven’t worked out the gears at all yet. I seem to be able to change up but not down, so now have it on the highest of the gears. There are no marks on the two gear levers, and I think they move the gears rather than have fixed positions … can anyone explain?

(Otherwise I’ll have to go down to the bike shop and look really silly – “got this bike; how do I change the gears?”)

P.S. While I was trying to understand my gears came across the wonderfully comprehensive Wikipedia entry on “bicycle”. Some fascinating physics in there…